American Journal of Public Health
March, 2002
By Brady G. S. Case, AB, David U. Himmelstein, MD and Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH
“Conclusions. Health care personnel are losing health insurance coverage more rapidly than are other workers. Increasingly, the health care sector is consigning its own workers and their children to the ranks of the uninsured.”
Los Angeles Times February 28, 2002 “More Health-Care Aides Lack Insurance, Study Finds” By Sufiya Abdur-Rahman
Drew Altman, president of Kaiser Family Foundation:
“You’d like the health-care industry to practice what it preaches, but the health-care industry is just like any other industry when it comes to low-wage workers.”
Walter Zelman, president of the California Assn. of Health Plans:
“It’s not any worse for a low-wage employee in a restaurant to be uninsured than a low-wage employee in a nursing home to be uninsured. They have the same family, the same risks and it’s unfortunate for anyone to be uninsured.”
David Himmelstein, M.D., Harvard professor and co-author of the study:
“There’s something particularly offensive in saying to a woman who’s working for a hospital that if you get sick or your kids get sick, you’re not going to be able to get the care you need.”